Inhabited lands

Chiquitano

Other namesChiquito

Where they are

How many

Bolivia

108.206 (Censo Nacional, 2001)

MT

498 (Siasi/Sesai, 2014)

Linguistic familyChiquito

Introduction

The Chiquitano people was formed by the amalgamation of different Indigenous groups put together in villages of Jesuit missions in the 17th Century. Living in the region of the border between Brazil and Bolivia, they were compulsorily dragged into political conflicts and cultural differences caused by a territorial division they had nothing to do with. The large majority of this people is in Bolivia. Those who live in Brazil have been exploited as cheap labor by landowners, who also represent a constant threat of invasion of the few territories left to them. But the Chiquitano have been struggling for the right for an Indigenous Land of their own, which is in the process of being identified by Funai, and that may ensure the continuity of their cultural identity.